Marriage is Murder

Edward passed Robert in the hallway and the two of them spoke. Robert said their farewells and then Edward went downstairs.

"Nice job, Ace," Edward cast a sarcastic glance at Steven. "They'll forgive you if you just do your job, you know. Anyway, Robert sent me to ask you two to please go ahead and return so that they're ready to step in and just take care of things in a routine manner. No big receptions or chaos. Quietly. He'll delay for a moment or two, but he does not want people making a big fuss because you're all coming back. In fact he wants the opposite. They'll be behind you by no more than two minutes at best, so you don't have much time. I'd go now if I were you."

Upstairs, Brian had found clothes for Khaat. Michael stepped out into the hallway, and Brian helped her change. Michael and Robert returned when Brian had finished helping her change.

"Well at least everyone's alright," Kate said. "The rest is resolvable." Kate went to help ready the house for their return.

Robert and Michael brought Khaat back. Brian wanted to bring Khaat down to the living room to let her enjoy the Christmas decorations, but Khaat firmly refused. She was giving the children space and staying out of the way. He offered to let her have the sofa in the bedroom, but she refused again. She just wanted to be in bed and out of everyone's way. Brian, for now, gave in and did as she asked. He wanted to go get her a cup of tea with her potions and she grew angry enough that her damaged magic started to fire accidental magic all over the house. Things began to hurl themselves in every direction. Khaat didn't understand why the house seemed to just go bezerk.

Michael began to get kicked repeatedly in the shins by an angry chair. "Cheeky chair!" The chair took off running from him, and Michael gave chase to it.

"I wondered how long it would take before we got to this," Robert said, drawing his wand, but just in time for one of Brian's art pieces to smash into the wall.

Michael spun around a corner, and a large Native American shield flew off the wall and walloped Michael right square in the face. He fell, momentarily stunned.

"Michael!" Kate said, ducking and going to him quickly. She knelt beside him. It took Michael a moment to wake up. He woke up, hurting and unhappy.

"Remind me to slap the shit out of your son in law if he can't manage to stop that girl's temper tantrum. Whatever he did to piss her off, he'd better quit it," Michael said.

Brian had been talking with her. He agreed to not bring her any tea for the moment. It had taken a bit to try to soothe her but her fright of everything being out of control in the house had kept the magic moving. He knew they were going to have to fend this off for a few minutes until he tried to ease her nerves a bit. It was a bit better, but it was just going to take a little bit.

Angus wanted to help but he had issues of his own. He was being attacked from every direction by every knife and cleaver he had in the kitchen. He already had a paring knife lodged in his upper arm, and a deep wound from a butcher knife across part of his back.

Robert had merely gone to his room to get a bottle of potion for Khaat when all the madness erupted in the house. He knew it was rage. And then he saw the shift in how the magic was displaying. It was now more defensive. It was now from intense fear.

He apparated into the center of the house and pointed his wand upwards. "Finite!" he bellowed, firing a powerful spell. The out of control magical items stopped and fell to the floor.

Kate helped Michael to his feet. He was dazed. She helped him to a chair and helped him sit down. His head hurt.

"Everyone okay?" Robert called.

"Checking," Kate called. Angus picked up the numerous razor sharp knives one by one and put them away. He couldn't figure out why he was still missing one. But he had so much adrenalin in his system that he didn't feel any pain from the knife wounds he had nor from the knife he still had lodged in his arm. The one he couldnt account for.

"What?" Angus looked at her, frowning. Robert went quickly to the kitchen. He looked at the blood all over the kitchen.

"Okay, so we're not all alright," Robert said. He looked at Angus. "Pretty fast moving, was it?" he asked.

"Very," Angus said.

"Then thats why it doesn't hurt. You're still running on adrenalin. You're bleeding. Come sit down and lets fix it," Robert said.

"Did one of them get me?" Angus asked.

"Get you? It still has you," Robert said, insisting Angus go sit down.

"Really?" Angus said. "Hm...Interesting." He obeyed. Robert numbed the area anyway and then carefully removed the knife. The blood poured but Robert worked on sealing that quickly.

"I'll seal this but, Jess, I'd like you to dress this for today. It should be alright tomorrow," Robert said.

Upstairs, Brian kissed Khaat's nose softly. "You do have a temper," he laughed. "You always have." She frowned. "Those were your abilities. Its called accidental magic. Its what happens when we've been hurt and its not as under our control as we would like it. Its harmless. We have too many of us here for it to be anything but purely harmless." Khaat was more confused than ever. And she was feeling, more than ever, that she didn't belong here. The reasons were endless. The tears began to sting and burn in her eyes. She clutched her blanket around herself, feeling insecure and unwanted, and just that quickly, without any effort at all, she accidently apparated out.

Brian suddenly found himself alone in the bedroom, and he knew she hadn't intended to apparate out. Hell, she didn't know how.

"Robert!" Brian bellowed. He was panicking, hoping Khaat hadn't accidently splinched herself.

"You're needed here too," Kate called.

"One emergency at a time, please," Robert called.

"Now!!" Brian shouted. "Jack! Jim! Come on, you lot. Move! All of you!"